


Toes

by damnspacebois (Race_Jackson23)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Light Angst, Mother-Son Relationship, Short & Sweet, baby Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-27 19:30:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14432541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Race_Jackson23/pseuds/damnspacebois
Summary: Krolia considers her little boy and comes to the conclusion that he's perfect, toes and all.just some soft angst and fluff where Krolia gives her baby a hug and contemplates that human feet are weird.





	Toes

He has toes.

Ten toes, and ten fingers too, with little nails half the size of rice grains. They are positively _tiny_ , like him, all frail bones and satiny soft skin. Of all the things about him that are different – of his dark hair, rounded ears, creamy pale skin – it is his toes that Krolia cannot bring herself to look away from. His toes are that which entrances her.

She is the first to admit the strangeness of it. Such a little thing to hold her attention, but it does. It is not as if she has never seen human toes before, and though admittedly she has never had cause to ponder what Tex’s would look like so small, it is logical that a child’s should be so tiny. Yet, something about them, their frailness perhaps or the way they clench and unclench with his moods, is so undeniably _human_.

And Keith _is_ human. His is the face of his human forebears, no trace of the Galra in him; no purple skin, no large ears or yellowed eyes. Tex tells her that he is too young to determine who he takes after, but Krolia has a sinking feeling that it won’t her. Their eyes are all that they share, and while most of her is relieved by that, there’s a nagging at her chest that regrets it, that wishes he were more like her.

It’s a sentimentality she keeps to herself and thinks of only when alone, no matter how quickly silenced. It makes her feel dirty, like she’s ungrateful for the little family that she’s carved out for herself in the ruins that are the life of a Marmora spy, or like she wishes Keith were somehow different to what he is. It makes her feel dirty, because she'd never wish that.

Because Keith is perfect.

As weird and alien as he is, he’s her son and he’s perfect the way he is, toes and all. Maybe all mothers feel this way about their children, think that their child is perfect, but Krolia knows that hers is. And that’s what makes it hard.

She had never planned on this, never planned on falling in love and having a child. She never planned on finding this chink in her armour, this little person who holds her heart in the palm of his all-too-human hand. For the first time in a long time, she’s blindsided, all goals disintegrating in the face of something so soft and pure. Though she never planned on him, she knows, like she knows that Keith is perfect, that she’d do anything to keep him safe.

Even if keeping him safe means leaving him.

The part of her that is so entranced by his toes bucks at this. It’s the part of her that wants to cuddle him close and pinch his cheeks and blow raspberries on his little tummy. It’s _instinctive_ , the part that insists the safest place for him is in her arms because she and she alone is strong enough to fight off anything that might hurt him.

But try as she may to convince herself of that, the logic and reasoning part of her brain always kicks in and stops her. She’d been on a mission when she’d crashed on Earth, and while she’d failed to locate the blue lion of Voltron, there are many other crucial missions that would need to be completed to take down the Empire. The fight wouldn’t end just because she’d found some semblance of peace in the wreckage, and if Zarkon came to Earth?

Well, she would try to stop him. The likelihood that she would succeed was slim, though, but if she returned to the Marmora? If she took up her duties once again in the fight against the Empire? The Empire might never even _reach_ Earth.

And if there was a chance she could stop them, she’d take it. If she could keep her little boy safe, she’d do anything.

So, toes.

As weird as they are, they’re a good thing. The toes mean that he looks human, but more importantly, that he’s hidden. There is nothing visible to single him out to the Galra, nothing out of place to make them target him. It’s a hollow idea, especially as the Empire slaughters without rhyme or reason and he just might get caught up in that anyway, but his appearance is a shield against more than just the Empire. She’s heard enough from Tex about his youth, his day-to-day life, to know that difference, even here on Earth where the people are so many different colours and shapes, is not tolerated as humanity might espouse it is. Keith’s toes mean he won’t be singled out for this difference.

Yet another way that Keith’s human visage is a good thing, she supposes. Aside from the fact that he looks perfect, of course.

With that thought, she lifts him out of his crib and cradles him in her arms. He’s awake in that drowsy way that means he has slept well and wants to go back to sleep, and for a moment Krolia worries that she’s disturbed him. But instead of squeaking at her like he’s prone to do when she annoys him, he merely burrows his little head into her chest and he could swear that the sigh he lets out is one of contentment. She softens.

At that moment, she’s not thinking about missions and the Empire and hiding Keith. She’s not thinking about leaving them here or about how she’ll steel herself to do it. She’s not thinking about how Keith will grow up without knowing his mother _because it will be safer that way_.

No. She’s not thinking about any of that as she holds him close and whispers Galran lullabies into his hair. Nuzzling further into her chest, her boy makes those content little coos and her heart melts even more. At that moment, she wants nothing more than to freeze time and leave them where they are.

She’s thinking about how she loves her little boy, and how perfect he is.

Toes and all.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my second Voltron fic! The first is coming along nicely (its called [Bereft](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14409453/chapters/33277749) if you're interested, it's a 5+1 of the times Keith needed an absent Krolia) but I thought I'd post up something else that was short and sweet, so here we go. Lemme know if you liked it by leaving a comment or a kudos, or even [come talk to me on Tumblr](damnspacebois.tumblr.com).


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